Members

The Asia-Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN) has over one hundred members from eighteen countries across Asia and the Pacific, consisting of former political, diplomatic and military leaders, senior government officials, and scholars and opinion leaders. APLN aims to inform and energize public opinion, especially high-level policymakers, to take seriously the very real threats posed by nuclear weapons, and to do everything possible to achieve a world in which they are contained, diminished and eventually eliminated.

Natalie SAMBHI

Natalie SAMBHI

Natalie Sambhi is Founder and Executive Director of Verve Research, an independent think tank focussed on the relationship between militaries and societies in Southeast Asia.

Through her research, presentations and publications, Natalie Sambhi is committed to helping people gain a more nuanced understanding of Indonesian civil-military relations, Indonesian defence policy and Southeast Asian security.

Natalie is Founder and Executive Director of Verve Research, an independent think tank focussed on the relationship between militaries and societies in Southeast Asia. She is also a Non-resident Fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program and has a PhD from the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, the Australian National University on the Indonesian military’s history.

Since 2022, Natalie has worked as an academic with Deakin University, convening modules for the Australian War College’s Defence and Strategic Studies Course (DSSC) and Australian Command and Staff Course (ACSC). From 2016 to 2020, Natalie was a Research Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre. From 2012 to 2016, she also worked at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) as an Analyst and Managing Editor of ASPI’s blog, The Strategist. She has previously worked at the Department of Defence, University of Canberra and for the academic journal Asian-Pacific Economic Literature. In May 2014 and in January 2016, Natalie was a Visiting Fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) in Washington, DC. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies) (Hons) from the University of Western Australia and a Master of Arts (International Relations) and Master of Diplomacy from the Australian National University.

Natalie has been a guest lecturer and presenter at the Australian National University, Australian National Security College, Australian War College, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Indonesian National Resilience Institute (LEMHANNAS), Indonesian Defense University, Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Canadian Department of National Defence and several international think tanks and universities. Her writing has appeared in Security Challenges journal, South China Morning Post, War On The Rocks, The Diplomat, The Interpreter and The National Interest.

Natalie has previously been involved with the Australian Institute of International Affairs ACT; the US-based Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC) and was a founding member of ASPI’s Women in Defence and Security Network (WDSN). Follow her on Twitter @securityscholar.